By Kiyoshi Martinez

Staff writer

The mid-term election in November could take an interesting turn this fall for the 52nd district in Illinois as a potential third-party candidate eyes getting on the ballot.

Socialist Equality Party candidate Joe Parnarauskis has thrown his hat in the ring and is collecting signatures to be placed on the ballot. He sees himself as an alternative for voters tired of a two-party system in U.S. politics.

“Many people realize that this two-party system does not express their interests,” Parnarauskis said. “Our campaign really is one to give an active voice for the working class people to have a party.”

To have his name placed on the ballot for State Senate, Parnarauskis needs 2,985 signatures. He said his campaign is “approaching 4,000” signatures so far and will continue to collect them until the June 26 deadline to turn them into the state board of elections.

Parnarauskis said he is collecting a number of signatures over the amount required because he expects that his petition will be challenged by the Democratic Party, based on his prior experience in 2004 while managing the campaign for SEP candidate Tom Mackaman for the 103rd Illinois State Representative seat.

“It was really an eye-opener in that on how undemocratic the Democratic Party is,” Parnarauskis said. “And to that extent, we really feel that they’ll attempt the same methods to keep us off again. I know that in 2004 they actually even objected to Tom Mackaman’s own signature. They were really acting in bad faith to their objections.”

Democratic candidate for State Senate in the 52nd and current Champaign County Auditor, Mike Frerichs, said that other candidates are free to participate in the election and that he would be focusing on his campaign and his issues.

Frerichs said he would be focusing on the need for more resources in both K-12 and higher education, increasing access to health care and promoting job creation.

“I think that’s a message that people I’ve met while knocking on doors have responded well to,” Frerichs said.

Republican candidate for the 52nd, Judy Myers, said that it was a free country and that if Parnarauskis had the signatures, he should be able to be on the ballot.

Myers said her previous time as a state senator serving the 53rd District would help her to be able to promote education, agriculture and small businesses.

“(I) do have experience in dealing with small businesses,” Myers said. “I know what it’s like from the inside.”

Parnarauskis’ main issue that he will be campaigning on, however, comes from a national issue: the war in Iraq.

“The majority of the people we’ve talked to have been opposed to the war in Iraq,” Parnarauskis said. “They really feel that the American troops need to be brought back home.”

Parnarauskis said the issue of the ongoing conflict is one that he is linking back because national issues are local issues.

“People understand clearly that with the government spending billions of dollars at the national level to prosecute a war – that first off didn’t need to be started and was started illegally – those billions of dollars is money down the tubes that could be better used at home,” Parnarauskis said. “And that is part of our campaign. In order to help the issues and concerns that require money, that the only way to achieve that is to stop this war.”

Parnarauskis, 52, currently lives in Westville, Ill., and said he came to the University in 1972, but dropped out after three semesters. He went back to school and is now a registered nurse.

He described his parents as Democratic Party oriented and his father would talk to him about politics and the working class. Parnarauskis said that growing up during the Vietnam War “radicalized him” as he saw how the Democratic Party initiated the war, and now, he is a member of the SEP.

“Our view is that we’re internationalists,” Parnarauskis said. “Our party is represented not only in the United States, but worldwide … We view the struggle of the working class to be an international struggle.

Parnarauskis said he views the two-party system as a one-party system, and neither the Democrats nor Republicans represent the working class.

And how does he respond to a common criticism that third-party candidates act as spoilers in elections, as he could potentially be for the Democrats?

“What we say is the difficulties of the Democratic Party in maintaining their base of support … is no one’s fault but their own,” Parnarauskis said. “The Democratic Party has turned its back on the working class people. They support the war in Iraq, despite the majority of American people saying ‘no more.’ The Democratic Party firmly supports the assault on democratic rights against the American people, regarding the spying of the national security agency and other agencies of the government.”

Parnarauskis said people he has met while asking for petition signatures have said they were voting for the lesser of two evils.

“What we say is, ‘A rotten apple is a rotten apple,'” Parnarauskis said. “And we view the two-party system as a totally corrupt system.”

While Parnarauskis said he has encountered some people who have refused to sign his petition, a portion have been receptive.

“We’ve had a lot of people willing to sign our petition on the basic premise that everyone has the democratic right to get on the ballot,” he said. “That’s a good thing to see and a good feeling that people really believe in democratic principles.”